This invention relates to the art of ink jet printers and, more particularly, to enclosures for ink reservoir bags for supplying ink to an ink cartridge in a continuous ink supply system.
Continuous ink refill systems for disposable ink jet cartridges are of course well known as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,469,201 to Erickson, et al. and 5,745,137 to Scheffelin, et al., both of which are incorporated herein by reference for background information. In such systems, basically, a cartridge is connected to an auxiliary supply reservoir by means of a flexible hose or tube and, during operation of the printing system, the tube is open to allow ink to flow from the reservoir to the ink cartridge. During shipping or handling of the ink supply reservoir/cartridge system, when the latter is outside the print machine, and when the system is installed in a printer, it is important to protect the reservoir bag from the application of excessive pressure thereon. In this respect, excessive pressure on the supply bag could cause the associated ink jet cartridge to lose its prime, or could cause leakage in the tubing connection points between the cartridge and reservoir bag. Further, in connection with installation of a system or systems in a printer, it is desired to enable the supply reservoir to be supported on a platform inside the printer so as to stabilize the position of the reservoir relative to the associated cartridge and, in a printer which can accommodate multiple systems, it is desirable to enable stacking of multiple reservoir bags for optimizing the economy of space within the printer.